Survivors

They tried to creep into the camp unnoticed, but to be honest, in their hearts they knew it was never going to happen. They knew a couple of places you could sneak out of the camp and be far enough away when you were spotted that nobody would bother chasing them, but getting in was different. When they did sneak out they would normally just get told off and be given a long boring lecture when they got back. They usually snuck out to go for a swim, a walk or explore the forest, anything just to break the monotony of camp life. So a bit of a telling off for a little bit of excitement was normally worth it.

Getting Back in to the camp was going to be a different matter. They knew the camp had to be ever vigilant, because of the threat of being discovered by the Aliens. So the camp had lookouts... lots of lookouts and because of the lookouts nobody and nothing could get within half a mile without being seen. Once the someone or something was spotted the whole camp could be ready to run in less than a minute. On more than one occasion an alarm had sent everyone scrambling for their stuff, only for the perceived threat to turn out to be false... but better safe than sorry.

So they knew they would have definitely been spotted at some point, at some time, before they got back into camp. All they could hope for was that whoever saw them just assumed that they were returning from one of their normal “adventures” and wouldn’t bother reporting them to Darius. Unfortunately luck was not with them and no sooner had they set foot in the camp when a voice bellowed..

“You three, come here. Right NOW!” It was Darius, the camp leader.

Holly and Joe froze instantly and stared wide eyed at Luke in fear. Luke for his part knew they were in for one hell of a rollicking but rather than making him feel scared it just made him feel angrier and angrier. His stuck his chin out in defiance and his brow furrowed into a sulky sullen frown.

“Come on” he hissed “Let’s get this over with”.

He turned and slouched his way over to Darius who kicked open the door of his shack and snarled at them “Get in”.

The fact Darius had taken them into the shack was scary. Normally when they’d done something wrong Darius just bawled them out in front of the rest of the camp to make an example of them. They were the youngest by several years so they tended to be made an example of quite often. Being the youngest meant that everyone; looked after them, scolded them, thought they needed teaching and generally referred to them, not a little patronisingly, as “the kids”.

They filed into the shack one after the other, eyes on the floor. They stood in the little dark cramped room not daring to meet Darius’s gaze. He stormed in after then and slammed the door shut.

“So” he began, “We’ve not only got three little idiots in the camp we have a thief as well do we?”

“Da..” was as far as Luke got before Darius bellowed over the top of him.

“Don’t even try to deny it, justify it, or explain it. One of you three, and I don’t care which one, because if one of you knew what was going on you all knew!... One of you took my card from my pocket, you took it without asking, without my knowledge and in my book that makes you thieves.” He paused for a moment, then went on “For heaven’s sake we don’t have much, thanks to the Aliens, but what I did think we had was trust. And now I don’t think we even have that! We all have to stick together, help each other, look out for each other and never, not ever... put each other in DANGER.” Another mini pause for breath “Today you did all those things, and I dare say a whole lot more that I don’t know about yet. You have failed” he said pointing at each of them in turn “In your responsibilities to every single person in this camp.”

Holly was close to tears by now and Joe was staring at the ground like it was the most interesting thing he had ever seen. Only Luke looked up when Darius seemed to have finished.

“You done?” He asked with a sneer.

“I’ve hardly started!!” Darius bellowed back only inches from Luke’s nose. Then all of a sudden he seemed to lose the energy and will to carry on. He slumped down onto his camp bed, sighed a really deep heavy sigh that seemed to start from somewhere near his toes and covered his face with his hands.

“What’s the point” he said “What is the point. It just doesn’t matter anymore does it?” He looked up at Luke “You grow up anyway you damn well like, who is going to care? I’m living with a morality that doesn’t even make sense to me these days. What difference does it make if you grow up thinking that stealing is okay, lying is okay, and even... killing is okay. Hardly anyone will even notice. Who’s going to care anyway? And even if they do who’s going to do anything about it? There’s no courts, no police, no government, just the Aliens! So I guess it’s okay to just survive, to keep one step ahead of the Aliens and to hell with everything else!”

Darius stopped and looked up at them. He looked unbearably weary, totally worn out, almost close to tears. He sighed again, and seemed to come to a decision.

“Go on” he said “Get out. Just give me back the card”

Holly, Joe and Luke exchanged terrified glances.

“What is it?” said Darius, noticing the look between them “What … oh no… don’t tell me you lost it?”

Even Luke didn’t have the nerve not to stare really hard at the ground this time.

“You’ve lost it!” said Darius, his voice rising again. “Oh my god, do you realise, do you realise…” He stopped again and ran his fingers through his hair. He put his hand over his mouth and looked up at them again. Then after what seemed like an absolute age he said in a quiet hoarse voice “Don’t tell anyone else, don’t you dare tell them. I don’t want anyone worried about it. About how we are going to feed ourselves. Don’t say anything till I’ve had time to think of something. Do you understand?”

They nodded.

“Now get out. Go on... go”

Luke moved to the door and opened it. Holly and Joe went to follow him.

“And one more thing” said Darius. “The others will be expecting you to be punished so you’re on guard duty for the next four midnight shifts”

He turned away.

“Darius” said Holly in a voice that was hardly more than a whisper “We’re really sorry, honestly”.

“Yeah I know” he replied “I know... But that doesn’t make it alright does it!”